Shōwa
昭和Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
The Goyashiki Detached Parlor in Takamatsu is a 1935 two-storey guest wing with 2 rooms per floor, tokonoma alcoves and refined sukiya-style shelves and shoji.
Timber public hall of 1934 near the approach to Kotohiragu in Kagawa, its great hip-and-gable roof set against Mount Zozu; still used for local events.
Cooperative warehouse of 1936 in Utazu, Kagawa, single-storeyed yet over 8 metres to the ridge, a reminder of the port town's prosperity; now Komesse Utazu.
Early Showa shed at Sakai Soy Sauce on Shodoshima, Kagawa, housing a hydraulic accumulator of stacked concrete blocks that powered the presses for moromi mash.
At the south end of the platform shelters, this covered steel overpass links the depot with both island platforms on a through Pratt truss. Erected in 1927.
At JR Tadotsu, where Shikoku's railways began, a 19-meter steel turntable still turns within a rare pit of cut granite, a working survivor of the steam age.
The largest hall in the JR Tadotsu Works, this 1931 reinforced-concrete building runs a 114.4-meter ridge, with butterfly roofs lighting a vast column-free floor.
Just west of Workshop No.17, this 1939 steel hall carries a Pratt truss over a 43.9-meter ridge, forming with its neighbor the historic core of the Tadotsu Works.
Inside the main gate of the JR Tadotsu Works, this plain 1935 timber hall shows clapboard walls and round vent windows in its mortar gables, and now serves as a PR room.
Built in 1941 south of Workshop No.17, this warehouse carries a bolted timber truss shaped like steel, an improvisation forced by wartime shortages of metal.
Adjoining Workshop No.17 to the south, this 1936 steel building carries a Warren truss over a 48.1-meter ridge, unlike its concrete and timber neighbors.
The Shioda Family Residence North Storehouse on Shodoshima is an early Showa two-story earthen store on cut granite beside the path to the brewery. Listed 2002.
The Shioda Family Residence Nagayamon Gate and Wall on Shodoshima pairs a charred-cedar gatehouse and tea room with a wall on a riverside embankment. Listed 2002.
The Shioda Family Residence East Annex on Shodoshima is an early Showa riverside building said to have been the shop, with a hooded lattice window. Listed 2002.
The Shioda Family Residence South Storehouse on Shodoshima is a small early Showa earthen storehouse built on the Umaki River revetment at a bend. Listed 2002.
The Shimizu Kannondo on Teshima in Kagawa is a small early Showa hall above the Karato spring, forming with the shared water place a space that ties water to faith.
Former kimono shop of 1935 in Mitoyo, Kagawa, said to copy modern Kyoto architecture, with a skylit double-height gallery; now a small rural postal agency.
A five-bay wooden passage at Zentsuji Tanjoin in Kagawa, built about 1940, with a one-bay Enma hall under its north roof slope. Registered in 2010, 21 square metres.
A three-bay-square hall of 1936 at Zentsuji Tanjoin in Kagawa, with a pyramidal tiled roof and a carved centre bay treated like a shrine cabinet. Registered in 2010.
A three-bay-square hall of 1940 at Zentsuji Tanjoin in Kagawa, with a two-tier copper pyramidal roof and deliberately archaic carving. Registered in 2010.